


Lego House

by iwanttobeyoursnow



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-09
Updated: 2013-04-08
Packaged: 2017-12-07 22:45:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/753937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwanttobeyoursnow/pseuds/iwanttobeyoursnow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU fic where all the boys are at school together and there is a sort of rivalry going on between the two different groups they’re in. (The groups are Zayn, Louis, Liam and then Harry, Niall, Ed [Sheeran]). They’re in their last year of college (Year 13), so they will be 17 going on 18. The inspiration for some of this is from my interpretation of Ed Sheeran’s song “Lego House”.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The piercing ring of a bell signalled the start of the school day, and the inevitable end of summer. Zayn sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck, dreading the day before him. It was his last year of college and this year would be full of stress from his upcoming A Levels. Not to mention his best mate, Louis had failed to show up on time for morning registration, so he was left alone with Liam for the time being. Now, Zayn loved Liam. He, along with Louis were his two best mates at this school, but at the same time Liam was very… focused. Already, he was seated straight in his seat, facing the front of the classroom awaiting their teacher. Liam was a fun guy and all, just not one that would mess about a lot at school. Meaning Zayn was now bored out of his mind.

A slightly dishevelled man entered the classroom, wearing a tattered old hat and a warm smile on his face. “Hello class, I’m Matt Cardle and I’ll be your form tutor this year. I’m the new music teacher, and it’s not only my first year at this school but also my first year teaching in general. So try not to give me too much shit if I screw up, yeah? Alright, registration…” As their new teacher set about checking who was there, and who was absent, Zayn couldn’t help but grin. He didn’t usually take well to people, especially the obnoxious pricks he had as teachers, but he had taken an instant like to Mr. Cardle. Perhaps this year wasn’t going to be so bad after all.

——

“Shit mum, why didn’t you wake me?!” Louis frantically dressed in his school uniform while attempting to gather all the necessary supplies for his first day of Year 13.

“I’m sorry, Boo. I forgot that you started today. Anyways, its hardly my responsibility. You are almost 18, you know.” Came his mum’s reply from somewhere downstairs.

“Yeah, mum I know!” He shouted back. “You tell me that almost every bloody day now…” Louis mumbled to himself. Its not like Louis wasn’t looking forward to finally becoming legal, and all the perks that came with it. It’s just… turning 18 meant he would be finished with college soon, and in less than a year’s time, he would be setting off for uni on his own. Though he would never admit it, that thought absolutely terrified the lad. Louis would miss being young and carefree, he would miss being treated as a young boy by his mum, and most of all he would miss the lack of responsibility that came with being a child. But the biggest reason Louis was worried about university and growing older was that in order to actually be someone and make something of himself, in a way, he would have to leave his old life behind. He’d have to leave Liam and Zayn, all his little sisters, his mum. Yes, he would see them all again frequently, but it just wouldn’t be the same.

——

Harry sat in the back corner of the classroom, waiting for class to begin. He was sat with his two best mates, Ed and Niall. They had all applied for the advanced music class this year, and had all gotten in. Ed was probably the most musically talented out of the three, able to play guitar, sing flawlessly and come up with amazing lyrics. Niall too could sing, and play guitar extremely well. Harry however, felt at a disadvantage, not being able to play an instrument and relying wholly on his voice. But that had been enough to get him into the advanced music class. That class had always been an elitist class where only those who could play an array of different instruments was allowed in. Barely anyone was let in based off of their voice, and even if they were, they were usually able to play an instrument to aid it. But Mr. Cardle had heard something in Harry’s voice. An untapped potential for real success. So, Harry had been allowed in.

Harry glanced around the room, mentally judging every other person in there. There were a few that Harry had spoken to a few times who were really nice, and seemed pretty cool. A lot of them he recognised but was unable to place a name to the face, and there were quite a few he had never seen before. As this was only a Year 13’s class, that confused Harry. Had he really been that oblivious to all others than Niall and Ed last year? He knew he had been somewhat secluded, but to have never seen kids before that had supposedly been at school with him for an entire year perplexed him.

As the bell finally rung, he turned away his attention to the front of the class where a shabby-looking man stood, beaming at the class. “Hello, boys and girls! I am your new music teacher this year, Matt Cardle.” Harry couldn’t help but crack a smile at the man, something about him was extremely welcoming and endearing. He quickly glanced around and noticed he was not the only one who thought so. “So, as it’s the first day and all and I know nothing about you or who you are, I think it would be best to play a fun little game. Ok, so first I’m gonna need you guys to sit in a circle on the floor.” If any other teacher had suggested this, the students would have scoffed at attempting to make them act like five-year-olds. However, because it was Mr. Cardle, they all happily complied. “Ok, so what we’re going to do is go round in the circle and everyone needs to say their name, and show us a little bit of what they can do.” Matt winked at them all. “Oh, I should have probably told you all to gather your instruments first and bring them to the circle with you. If you play more than two, just bring the two you like the most or are best at.”

As everyone else scrambled up to get their multiple instruments, Harry just sat awkwardly on the ground, waiting for Niall and Ed to return to him. It only took a few moments for them to grab their guitars and resume their seats on either side of him, but he had still felt extremely uncomfortable. Mr. Cardle must have noticed it, because as soon as he looked back up towards him, he had given Harry an encouraging smile.

When everyone had returned to their spots in the circle, Matt began again. “Ok class, so I’ll start, shall I? As you already know, my name is Matt. It is my first year teaching in general, not just at this school. And because I’m a music teacher, I have devoted my life to music, and can play many instruments, some much better than others.” He finished with a smile and a gesture for the girl seated next to him to begin speaking. Harry couldn’t help but notice the small blush that rose on her cheeks at being addressed by the teacher. Harry had not failed to pick up on the fact that their new teacher was indeed very attractive.

Halfway through the girl’s mini speech about herself, a loud bang came from the corridor outside, along with the sudden flinging open of the door to the classroom. Standing in the doorway was none other than Louis fucking Tomlinson. Harry glared at the boy in disgust. What the hell was he doing here? This was a quality music class. Louis had no musical ability whatsoever. The girl looked rather upset about being interrupted and looked towards their teacher, who was peering curiously at the new boy, who was still trying to catch his breath.

“And you are…?”

“Oh right, sorry! Sorry I’m late. Alarm didn’t go off and all. Erm hello, I’m Louis.” He gave a nervous smile to the teacher who grinned genuinely back at him.

“Ahh yes, Louis Tomlinson. Why don’t you take a seat somewhere in the circle. We’re playing a ‘getting to know you’ game. Just saying your name, an interesting fact about yourself, and then show us why you’re in this class to begin with.”

Louis nodded, and plopped himself down on the other side of the classroom next to Liam. Harry had no problem with Liam whatsoever, other than the fact that he was friends with Louis. He couldn’t understand how someone as nice and sweet as Liam could ever be friends with such a pretentious twat.

Harry glowered at an unknowing Louis while the ‘game’ continued around him. Soon however, it was Louis’ turn to speak and Harry couldn’t help but listen intently to the boy, eagerly wanting to know how the hell Louis had managed to writhe his way into this class.

“Hi guys, I’m Louis. So interesting fact… erm I didn’t actually get into music until about a year ago. I’d always been a fan, obviously. I mean, who doesn’t like music? But I’d never really thought of myself as musically gifted in any way. And I mean I guess I’m not really. I don’t play any instruments, but I’m hoping to learn. But I do sing.” Harry’s mouth dropped open. Louis, sing? Yeah, right. Harry thought back to when they were younger, he had always gone around singing little songs perfectly in tune while Louis would trail behind boisterously shouting the lyrics. The pair had had a lot of fun laughing at how bad Louis’ voice was and Louis had praised Harry’s so often. Wrapped up in his own memories, Harry had only just noticed that Louis had begun to sing. 

“There now, steady love, so few come and don’t go,

Will you, won’t you, be the one I’ll always know,

When I’m losing my control, the city spins around,

You’re the only one who knows, you slow it down.”

Louis ended and fixed another timid smile on his face as Harry at there in absolute shock. Louis… Louis could sing. Not only did he have an absolutely breathtaking voice, but when Louis sung, you could not help but come enthralled by him. There was so much meaning behind his words, and Harry had to bite down on his own lip once Louis had stopped so as to not scream out at him to continue. But… Louis was a dickhead, he had hurt Harry. He had done something that was unforgivable to the curly-haired boy. Harry shook his head. No, he was not going to let Louis come back into his life and fuck it up all over again. Looking towards Ed, and then Niall, he smiled. When he fell out with Louis, he had found these two. And his friendship with them meant more than his friendship with Louis ever did. Didn’t it?


	2. Chapter 2

Louis finished singing and had to physically sit on his hands to prevent them from shaking, and everyone seeing. Louis was not one to usually get shy or care about other people’s opinions, but singing was the one thing where all of that mattered to him. Mattered more than anything else. If someone he didn’t even know told him he was a shit singer, Louis would sometimes go as far as to cry. He knew their opinion shouldn’t mater as much as it did, because he knew he was good, but singing is the one thing that Louis believed made him who he was. None of that other typical teenage boy bullshit. Singing. That’s who Louis was. And if someone told Louis they didn’t like his voice, they might as well have told him they hated him.

Louis didn’t even pick up on the silence that had engulfed the room after his performance until, all of a sudden, it was broken. Loud cheers erupted throughout the classroom, and especially loud whooping came from Liam beside him. No one else that had performed had been greeted with such a breathtaking response, which made Louis feel all tingly on the inside. Looking towards Mr. Cardle, he saw a satisfied smirk playing across the teacher’s lips. Mr. Cardle had just proved that he had taken a risk by accepting Louis into the class but it had definitely been a good one.

As the cheering died down, Louis’ eyes flicked across the room until his gaze was met by the one person who hadn’t been cheering for him. Harry. Harry sat staring at him, mouth hanging wide open, not even caring who saw anymore. He had always pretended to be a terrible singer around Harry when they were younger for two great reasons. The first is that they always had such a laugh listening to his out of tune voice as he belted out lyrics to old favourites. The second, and much more prominent reason was so he wouldn’t outshine Harry in any way. Louis knew how much singing had meant—still meant—to Harry, and didn’t want to take any ounce of that away from the younger boy. It’s not that he thought he was better than Harry, or even equal to him, he just knew that Harry would become jealous if he knew that his best mate was able to sing. It had been his dirty little secret growing up, and it wasn’t until that day that he had begun to pursue singing with the aid of his new-found best mate Liam, if only to spite Harry. However, over time, Louis grew to love singing, and it had soon become his everything. Not that he had ever clued Harry in. Why should he have? It’s not like the two had remained best friends.

As Louis took in the applause from the rest of his classmates, Harry sat across from him staring dumbly. Since when could Louis sing like that?! Had he been lying to Harry all those years, he must have. That talent doesn’t just come out of nowhere. Suddenly rage flooded through every morsel of the younger boy’s body. He wasn’t sure where it had come from or why he cared so much that Louis could sing, but a part of him felt… betrayed. Knowing Louis held a shared talent with him tainted the sweet memories of his childhood, and brought old feelings to the forefront of his mind. He thought he had left those fucking disgusting thoughts behind him. He thought it was all over. Apparently not. Suddenly, Harry could feel himself welling up. Stupid fucking emotions.

Harry’s eyes darted around the room in panic as he searched eagerly for some sort of escape. However, when he allowed them to linger over Louis for only a moment, the two boys made eye contact for the first time in years. Harry had almost forgotten how piercingly blue the older male’s eyes were. It felt as though all the oxygen had been sucked from the room, leaving Harry in a vacuum, yet he was the only one that showed signs of having trouble breathing in. Surging up off the ground, Harry fled from the classroom, leaving a shocked Mr. Cardle and guilty Louis behind him.

——

“Then what the fuck was all that about with Harry, man?” Liam had begun to question Louis as soon as Harry had fled the music room, not failing to notice the secretive glimpses the pair had shared.

“Nothing Liam, can’t you just leave it out for once?” Liam flinched as Louis shouted the words back at him, Louis rarely ever shouted at someone. Taking in his friend’s reaction, Louis lowered the harshness of his voice. “Please mate, just… leave it out, alright?”

Thankfully, Zayn chose that moment to arrive, and whisked both boys away with him as he headed toward the car park. Zayn had started to babble on about something or other, but neither of his companions paid any attention to what he was saying. Louis’ thoughts had been plagued with flashes of long-suppressed memories with Harry. Liam’s thoughts however, were on Louis and trying to decipher what exactly was going on between him and the curly-haired lad. Louis had never told his new best mates how he and Harry had fallen out, but Liam had always had a pretty good idea of how it happened.

——

“Alright class, so now that you’ve all shown each other, as well as me, what you can do… I think it’s time for our first assignment. At first, I thought it would be better to start out easy, see how things go from there. But then I reconsidered, and have decided to give you all a little over three weeks to come up with your own song, lyrics and all. It can be any genre of music you’d like, as long as it’s not too crude, alright? Now, I’m a big fan of group assignments, but I’m also a big fan of commitment. So, as a result, I have paired each of you with one or two other members of this class, and you will remain partners for the remainder of the term, even after this first assignment is completed. So try not to get in too many fights, guys. Got it?” Mr. Cardle paused, waiting for a confirmation from his class, which he received through the form of some enthusiastic nodding of the heads, each student eager to find out who their partner was.

“Ok, so first we have Mr. Liam Payne, who will be paired with a Mr. Ed Sheeran,” Liam looked up from where he sat in the corner of the room, eyes finding Ed’s. Liam gave the boy an encouraging smile, which he was returned. Liam also couldn’t help but realise that Ed was one of Harry’s best mates. Maybe he knew something about their falling out… but that could wait. He didn’t want to creep this guy out by asking extremely intrusive questions about one of his best mates, which he wasn’t even sure Ed knew the answer to. No, he just had to be himself for the time being, he had the remainder of the term to find out about Louis and Harry.

Liam and Ed exchanged glances across the room as they tuned out the list of names their teacher was reading out. Ed couldn’t stop himself from taking in Liam’s every feature. His cute little nose, his perfect hair, those adorable puppy dog eyes, and that gorgeous mouth. He was even dressed well, button of his checkered shirt done up all the way to the top. As Ed mentally scanned over every detail of Liam’s face, he was clueless to the fact that Liam was doing the same to him. Ed was dressed in a scruffy old t-shirt with a pair of jeans and sneakers on. Despite what most people would think, Liam found he actually liked the very casual laid-back look that Ed had, not to mention the fact that it was absolutely adorable on him. Liam’s eyes raked back to Ed’s face, which the boy rested on his arm, wrist laden with bracelets-much like Harry. He wore a simple black rope around his neck, the end tied to something white that was poking out from the top of his shirt. His hair was ruffled and all over the place, almost like orderly bedhead, and he had slight ginger stubble growing around his mouth. His eyes were a soft and welcoming blue, and Liam couldn’t help but become lost in them. That is until he heard another name being read off Mr. Cardle’s list.

“And lastly, Niall Horan will be working with Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson. Have fun, guys.”


	3. Chapter 3

Harry felt his stomach drop at his teacher’s words. He couldn’t work with Louis. He just couldn’t. Too much shit had happened between the pair and to be honest, Harry would rather be with someone he loathed rather than be subjected to work alongside his former best mate. As if sensing his fear, Niall appeared out of nowhere behind Harry, placing a comforting hand on the youngest boy’s shoulder.

Of course, no one knew what had gone on between Louis and Harry, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that it must have been bad. I mean, for best mates of over ten years to just stop talking one day out of the blue and not even act in an amicable manor toward one another was proof enough that something extremely life-altering had happened between the pair. Only no one had even been able to get either boy to divulge about the fray that had caused their sudden break off from one another. Everyone wondered, but no one wanted to push either boy on a matter that was clearly extremely personal when neither was willing to part with the information.

Feeling the warmth from the blonde boy’s hand seeping through his thin t-shirt, Harry turned and was faced with his favourite little leprechaun, a grin splayed across his entire face. Harry couldn’t help but reciprocate the older boy’s smile, Niall’s joy really was infectious after all. ‘Maybe this won’t be so bad after all…’ Harry mused to himself, and as if the universe really was doing everything in its power to work against the curly-haired lad, he had turned just in time to see Louis rolling his eyes at something Liam was attempting to communicate with him.

“…but why can’t you just ask him to?!” Louis sounded extremely frustrated with the protesting boy before him.

“Because I can’t just ask the teacher for a partner change without a good reason, Louis! Why should I switch anyways? I like Ed. Just because you don’t want to be in a group with Harry. And anyways, I don’t have a good reason other than my best mate is being a selfish prat.”

Louis straightened up at Liam’s words, making the other boy well aware that he was in fact larger than him. “Well make something up, you fucking retard.” Louis spat the last word at Liam. From what Harry could gage across the room, Liam seemed to become much more afraid in those few moments of silent that followed Louis’ words. His figure appeared even smaller, partly due to Louis showing his full body mass, but mostly because he began to curl up into himself and away from Louis.

Louis remained staring at the timid brunette in front of him, realising the full affect of what he had just said to his mate. He hadn’t meant to call Liam a retard. Especially when he knew full well that Liam suffered from multiple learning difficulties, which is why his best subject had always been that of the creative type. Sure, Liam did exceptionally well in school considering his circumstances, but he had always had to work at a much greater extent than the rest of his classmates and he often felt embarrassed and even ashamed of his predicament. He was already teased enough for being a ‘geek’ and a ‘suck-up’.

Harry had been watching the communication between Louis and Liam from across the room in a stilled silence, as if it had been an episode of a drama teen show rather than real life. He had watched how Louis’ words appeared to slice through Liam like a knife, knocking away any confidence the younger boy held and causing him to second-guess himself. He was shocked however, to find that a moment later, Louis’s shoulders visibly sagged and he transformed back into the boy he was a minute ago. Sighing, he stepped closer to Liam and cautiously pulled him into a hug. Liam’s arms stilled at his sides for a moment, but it didn’t take long for them to slowly find their way back to the familiar curve of Louis’ waist as he hugged back tightly. Louis stroked at Liam’s hair and whispered soft apologies into Liam’s ear.

Harry was astounded to say the least. Not just at the strange string of communications that he had just witnessed between the two lads before him. Yes, he did find that utterly perplexing, but what he found even more confusing was the reaction he appeared to be having. Something pulled at Harry, deep in his gut, as he watched the exchange. It wasn’t until the end of it why he realised it had all seemed so familiar to him. The exact same thing used to happen between he and Louis back when they were friends.

They would get into an argument over something trivial, Louis would always have a severe insult at the ready for Harry, which Harry would then become extremely upset about within a matter of seconds. Then they would stand there and stare at one another, usually for no longer than a few more moments before Louis would feel instant remorse for what he had just done. As a result, Louis collected him up in his arms every single time and whispered apologies into his ear until he had calmed down. And then it was over, not to be spoken of again, forgotten.

Except the last time they had fought like that, there had been no apology from Louis. No attempt at a repentant hug. Nothing of the sort. Louis had merely jeered at Harry through the younger boy’s tears before skipping off to god knows where, seemingly unaffected as Harry’s world began to crumble around him without the soft comfort coming in the form of apologetic murmurs from his best mate.

Harry was abruptly snapped out of his reminiscing when he felt a sharp shoot of pain at his scalp. “Fucks sake, Niall! I told you never to touch my hair, especially when you’re going to hurt me…” Harry glared at the cheeky blonde boy in front of him as he rubbed at the sensitive spot on the top of his head.

An uncomfortable cough came from directly behind him, and he slowly turned to face Louis. “Sorry to interrupt this little… whatever it is, boys, but I’m afraid that we really have to get started on this project. I don’t know about you, but I do not plan on spending much time with you outside of class… working on the project, I mean.” He shot a glance in Harry’s direction, which only succeeded in making Harry want to punch the living daylights out of the arrogant bastard. 

“Right…” Niall broke the tense atmosphere that had quickly escalated in the time since Louis’ arrival. “Well, I was thinking that cos you two only sing, that we should do a duet of sorts, with me on guitar in the background. I can also do a bit of piano if necessary. I’m not sure what type of song you guys would want to do, but I’m up for anything.” His face crinkled a little in disgust as a thought crossed his mind. “Except country. Sorry fellas, that is one thing I will most certainly not be up for.”

“Well, considering the strengths and weaknesses in both mine and Louis’ voices, I feel like we’d be able to get the best result with a slower pop song? Something that would work as an acoustic, of course.” He glanced at Niall and winked. “Very simple and plain, so it really just focuses in on our voices.”

Louis was listening intently to the other boys as they spoke, nodding along in consensus. “Ok, so we’re doing a slower paced pop song with Harry and myself on the vocals, with Niall on guitar.” The other two boys exchanged one last glance before nodding at Louis words. “Right, well how are we going to write the song? Like who’s going to do what?”

“Well, considering I’m the only one that plays guitar, it would make sense for me to write the instrumental part of it, and you and Harry can focus on the lyrics, consulting me throughout the entire process to make sure the lyrics and melody fit in with one another. Sound good?”

As much as Louis and Harry didn’t get along, they really seemed to have put aside their differences for the sake of their project, which Niall could not be more thankful for. He just prayed that this new-found amicability between the pair was not going to be short-lived. Slowly, Harry began to nod, followed by Louis. “Alright, cool. Sorted, then.”


	4. Chapter 4

“Harry! Harry, hold up a minute, will you?” Louis dashed down the corridor, swerving in between meandering students on their way to lessons or during their breaks. Harry had bolted from the classroom as soon as they had assigned roles for their music project together, before Louis had the chance to set up some kind of time where they could brainstorm song ideas.

The sound of Louis’ voice calling out his name after so long caused Harry to stop despite himself. He didn’t turn around to face Louis, but he was unable to prevent himself from stopping. It had been so long since the pair had spoken, since Louis had needed Harry, and it felt good to hear the desperation in Louis’ voice when calling out to the younger boy. Harry wanted to feel needed, just like he had all those years ago, by Louis. It was in his nature; ever since Harry was so young all he wanted was to feel needed by the elder boy, the cool and popular boy with the softest chestnut hair and most dazzling cerulean eyes. And Louis had always made it his mission to make Harry feel needed. Well, until the summer after the boys had completed Year 8. Harry should have listened to his mother; the pair should never have gone down to the lake—

The boy whom he had been reminiscing about suddenly appearing in front of him cut off Harry from his thoughts. “Ok, I know that I’m probably just about the last person in the world you want to be spending any time with but we need a good grade on this project. I won’t settle for anything less than an A* and if you’re anything like you used to be, neither will you.”

Harry hung his head a little to prevent from looking directly into the piercing pools of blue before him, this was too much to handle. Louis was too close, Harry could feel the heat radiating off of the other boy’s body, something Harry used to revel in but now could do little more than fear. “Yeah, I agree.” Keep the answers short and sweet, and you won’t say anything that you’ll regret. That was his tactic. Separate yourself from him.

“Great! Well, when do you want to do this then?” Louis’ enthused response startled Harry and did nothing to aid the unwarranted fear and anxiety from clearing away. He couldn’t formulate a verbal response, so instead Harry just bit down on his lip and shrugged. “Erm ok well class is about to start so I’ve got to go but…” Louis paused to rummage through bag, which everyday was looking more and more like a rubbish tip, to locate a pen before grabbing one of Harry’s hands and beginning to write, “here’s my number, just text me later and we can sort this then, yeah?” Once again Harry was unable to manage to get his mouth to construct actual words and instead settled on a sharp nod. “Alright cool, bye Hazza!” Louis began to lean in for a hug before realising exactly what he was doing, and paired with the accidental slip of the nickname he knew the boy used to love, scuttled down the corridor and away from Harry as quickly as his legs would take him. Harry had the opposite reaction, and just stood there frozen in utter shock.

Harry looked towards his hand with the fresh pen marks on them and felt the lingering sensation of Louis’ touch there. It was sad, even after all of these years and what Louis had done to Harry, the younger boy was unable to forget about Louis. But that didn’t mean he was able to forgive him for what he had done. All of a sudden, the curly-haired boy found himself alone in the corridor at school with a warm and wet feeling on his cheeks. Raising his hands to his face, he realised there were silent tears leaking from the corners of his eyes, and so Harry did the only thing he knew what to do. The curly-haired brunette ran to the nearest bathroom, and into the stall, locking the door behind him. He closed the toilet lid and perched his body on top, pulling his knees up to his chest and dragging the familiar container out of his breast pocket. Harry took a swig from the beaten-down flask, the vodka leaving a warm sensation in his throat and where it pooled in his stomach. Harry smiled to himself as he felt himself already beginning to relax and began to drink the rest of the contents of the container.

Harry showed up to his next class twenty minutes late with no excuse and having enough alcohol in his system to make him slightly tipsy and easily distracted. The teacher only gave him a disapproving look when Harry waltzed into the classroom, not bothering with interrupting his class due to one of his student’s lackadaisical attitude towards his maths studies. Harry was content to take himself to the back of the classroom without a word and slump down in the seat farthest away from the teacher, in order to prevent himself from being noticed during the last half hour of class. The curly-haired brunette was perfectly happy to sit staring off out the window at absolutely nothing, allowing his thoughts to wander round of their own volition. That is until he saw the black sharpie marks soiling his pale skin in his peripheral vision, and he was suddenly angry with himself for not saving a bit of voddie in his flask for later. But strangely, for the first time in years, he could find no grudge against the other boy’s amicable advances.

——

“But Zayn,” Louis whined, “I don’t know what else I can do. It’s not my fault he’s not calling me like I told him to. I even asked him nicely like always, he just doesn’t care anymore.”

Zayn scoffed, “Lou, from what you’ve told Li and I, it sounds like you guys had a proper friendship. Now I don’t know what happened between you two, cos you still haven’t told us,” Zayn looked to Louis who just shook his head before looking back towards the ground signifying he would remain silent on the subject. Zayn rolled his eyes but continued nonetheless, “And I know you haven’t really spoken for a few years now but I don’t think he could hate you after you were such good friends when you were younger and I mean nothing you could have done to him would be enough to ruin such a friendship, surely.”

“Well I don’t know, he was… hang on, why do you automatically assume I did something to him?!”

“Have you seen the kid, Louis? He’s like a little angel, he’s far too sweet with those dimples and those eyes to have done anything to you.”

“I’m sweet and innocent too, you know…” Louis huffed and pouted for a few moments before remembering the topic of their conversation and suddenly his features twisted into a sour expression. “Honestly I think it was both of our faults. Mine for running away from him but his for not hearing me out after what happened. If he’d just give me a chance to explain, to properly talk, I know that we could sort this all out. But he won’t give me the time of day anymore. Not even for this bloody music project, you know? It’s just I’m not like him. I can’t be like him, it’s not right, it’s not who I am.”

Louis could feel hot liquid burning his eyes. He wasn’t going to cry. Not over Harry, not anymore. But as soon as the first drop fell, it was as if someone had turned the valve of a hose on and the tears would not subside no matter how much Louis attempted to suppress them. Zayn was at his side in moments however, rubbing soothing circles in his back as Louis clung to the front of his best mate’s shirt and allowed the silent tears to fall from his eyes freely. This was the first time that Zayn had ever heard Louis talk in some form about the spat that occurred between the two former best friends when they were younger, and although he had numerous questions whirring around inside of his mind begging for an answer, he knew that now was not the time, and continued to hold Louis until all his tears were spent. Louis lingered in Zayn’s embrace until sleep claimed them both.


End file.
